Unknown to Gus and Sally,
Ponduro had made an emergency phone call to Ream about an hour before.
"Mr. Johnson, come
quick. He's taking your horse. He's beating on Biff and forcing him into
a trailer right now. Biff won't go in. The man's drunk and swearing. He
has a whip."
"Who?" said Ream who
was instantly ignited to the crisis.
"Snake Buckman."
"Oh my God, I'll be
right there."
"Hurry!" said Ponduro
charged with panic and fright. "Biff is pulling and thrashing to get free.
It's pouring rain and the ground is muddy and slick. Biff won't go in the
trailer and I'm afraid he will slip and break a leg. He's fighting for
his life...."
The phone line went
dead as Snake ripped the barn phone from the wall.
The tone of Ream's
voice signaled Mrs. Mead into immediate action as he grabbed his slicker
from the rack and yelled instructions for her to get him to Gus's, immediately.
They both ran into the rain as Ream tried to tell her what was happening.
Stumbling over the
muddy road, they ran to save the horse Ream had come to know and love.
He thought, "Biff won't go in the trailer except for me or someone who
knows how to ask with respect. Such a simple thing, yet everything."
Snake became more infuriated
when Biff resisted. It wasn't a question of Snake winning because Biffer's
spirit would ensure a struggle to the death. Snake might eventually become
worn down, and in rage force Biff into breaking his back or leg, or worse,
shoot him.
Ream's fears were confirmed
as they arrived at the scene. There was a war in progress, The scene was
being hammered by the thunder storm.
The rain poured and the lightning hissed and stung with a bang into a nearby telephone pole. There wasn't time to think or plan, only react. Ream shouted at Snake, demanding him to stop.
Snake reacted, "Who
the hell are you?"
"Ream Johnson and that's
my horse you're messing with. Let me have him."
Snake's eyes narrowed
as he squinted through the rain to see his adversary. They flashed with
the joke he thought this blind man represented. He spit tobacco in Ream's
direction.
"Get me close to him,"
Ream cried to Mrs. Mead.
She did, saying, "He's
wearing a gun, Ream." Undaunted, Ream reached out and caught hold of Snake's
coat.
There are sometimes
moments in life when we are given an extraordinary amount strength to lift
a wrecked car off a trapped child or run unburned through a fire to a trapped
victim. This was one of those moments.
As if a freight train
had been unleashed from inside Ream, extraordinary strength poured from
his hands and voice. You have to be all the way right and true about your
purpose when this gift comes through, cracking like a whip. It will not
be denied. Ream's hand reached Snake's throat.
Ream handled Snake
like an obstinate stallion horse, knowing he had to give him a way out
or he would explode. He figured he might not get his horse back right now,
but at least he would save Biff's life. Ream was willing to make the trade.
So in horse language,
he made the wrong thing hard for Snake and the right choice easy when he
said, "OK, I'll load the horse for you; you'll kill him otherwise, but
you've got to let me do it, not you."
Then he said in a way
which could not be deflected and which burned through to Snake's core,
"I'm prepared to die here and now, are you?" All the penned up vitriolic
anger from his blindness came into his fingers as he clutched at Snake's
neck.
It was no bluff. Snake
knew he had to make the biggest choice of his life. It was his ultimate
confrontation with truth. Finally, the power of this bully had been forced
into the open. In this light, it shrank into retreat.
Snake capitulated and
whined, "OK, load the horse or I'll shoot both you and him right now."
Ream knew it was a weak threat.
Ream stood by his words
and gently loaded Biff who trusted his actions. In a storm of truth, Biff's
life was saved by his brother, a blind man who had confronted the same
force of evil which initially destroyed his sight and spirit.
Snake slammed the truck
door shut and pulled out with tires spinning.
"Mrs. Mead, we have
to call the highway patrol right now!"